The Coron Palawan Travel Adventure Day 1 & 2

April 9, 2010 – Manila Public Holiday (Day of Valor), we booked at Cebu Pacific for the Manila-Busuanga flight and would like to take advantage of the Long Weekends. We were already at the airport by 10am for the 1pm flight. And by 1:15pm- they cancel the flight! they said its an aircraft technical problems. As expected all the passenger got angry and questioned the announcements, asking for refund, rebooking, monetary damages. Cebu Pacific however offers, an overnight hotel accommodation (a second rate hotel somewhere in Roxas Blvd), 500 Pesos for transportation if you want to go home, and a refund of the airport fee. And I didnt avail any and signed any documents to waive my complaints. The Customer Service Manager is nowhere to be found, they attend to each complaint one by one without any standard response, we even get our bags individually, and worse the Cebu Pacific Staff do have this so called – “that is not part of my job” “im not from that department” “please speak to this person for your concern” – passing the back! they’ll be sure a good football player in the field! We also thought we are lucky enough to have this VIP co passengers who said they were former ambassadors to the UN and ambassadors to ADB asking for our signature to file for a block complaint but it seems the aircraft personnel gave them a special treatment of flying them out on a special aircraft and booking leaving us all behind. Bravo to you Madame Ambassador!

April 10, 2010 – Atlas! Welcome to Coron, Palawan Day 1. We first went to our hotel then proceed to Mt. Tapias for 746 steps climb! and its worth it. On top, one will have the birds eye view of Coron town, Coron bay and its islands, the road to Busuanga, the sprouting commercial buildings and the greenery of Coron. Very Beautiful indeed, most capturing the bay on sunset. So another 746 steps going down and we proceed to Maquinit Hot Springs, a 38 degrees Celsius salt water hot spring in the mangrove area. There are two hot pools adjacent to the spring, both cascade down into a larger pool, the water flows directly into the sea. This place is ideal to visit in the late afternoon or evening, after the tour. Our served dinner – lobster and fish sinigang (sour soup) with the palawan famous sidedish “Lato” seaweed commonly known as “sea grapes” because they look like a bunch of small green grapes, and when bitten into it releases refreshing saltwater into one’s mouth.

April 11, 2010 – We woke up as early as 3am for a trip to Calauit Island. The countrys major conservation showcase and unique nature park. It showcases a successful trans-location of African animals from Kenya in Africa such as, giraffes and elands, zebras and gazelles co-exist with endemic Philippine animals, like the Palawan bearcat, mousedeer and peacock pheasant. It was a long-wait boat ride for almost 6 hours! from a rough to a smooth ride till sunrise. On the way, I also witnessed a pearl farm said owned by the Japanese investors and it was a huge volume that is being farmed out from the Philippine sea to Japan market to the world. They said we are a poor country, are we? maybe poor government governance to protect our natural resources. On the other note, Calauit is really a good place to witness a Safari like adventure less the elephants, wild tigers and the lions. We really had fun with the zebras and giraffe’s anyway.

The boat ride going back with the sun up was really scenic and beautiful. We hop at the Black Island for lunch and went to a cave with a lake inside, had a snorkeling activities in Cogbatan Beach and it became my longest hour of snorkeling and farthest freestyle swimming so far. Had a ship wreck skin diving too and yes, I need to brush up my scuba diving soon to go back soon and enjoy the beauty of underwater life. Also, Im thankful for the wonderful group who filled the boat with laughters and fun. Cheers to my new travel buddies and friends!